


For This They Serve

by WriteItSmall (scribblemyname)



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Kings & Queens, Loyalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/pseuds/WriteItSmall
Summary: Attolia was Attolia from the moment she stepped into the position of queen. Irene quietly took whatever was left a tender maiden's heart and locked it away where it could no longer be hurt or betrayed.





	For This They Serve

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ConvenientAlias](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/gifts).

When it was all over, Irene went quietly into her own rooms—the rooms of the new Queen of Attolia.

_You are powerful, my Queen,_ a quiet voice whispered in her ear.

_Why?_ she wanted to ask. _Why do you serve me?_ Instead, she turned into the shadows and answered the unspoken words, "Please do everything we discussed."

Relius bowed deeply and set to work.

* * *

They'd discussed so many things. The barons standing in her way, intending to use her own self against her, how to rein them in. The new guard needed to ensure both her safety and her rule, Teleus and his loyalty as strong as that of Relius.

Him too she cast her goddesslike visage on and wondered within herself, what hope did she offer them all that they would serve her? She'd given out her jewels, what few things she had to herself, of which there was so little.

But they stood beside her. They shut up the mouths of the men who would stand against her. Relius whispered words of treachery in her ears and caught plots before they were realized. Teleus and his men stopped more than one assassin. She paid her army and they loyally protected her life.

They _did_ serve her.

* * *

Aristogiton was only one of many in the guard—perhaps all of the guard—who would ride into the face of hell for his Queen. Attolia was everything a queen should be, ruthless, cunning, and placed firmly between her country and all those who would destroy it, whether from within or without.

There wasn't much room for softness in a queen, he figured, none of the sweet comfort he'd love in a wife someday, but what was there was worthy of his worship and his loyalty.

* * *

Attolia was Attolia from the moment she stepped into the position of queen. Irene quietly took whatever was left a tender maiden's heart and locked it away where it could no longer be hurt or betrayed.

She became the ruthless, the betrayer, for the good of her country. She choked the barons' goals to leech the land of its wealth and its people of whatever livelihood they had. She put an end to those who would barter and sell its future and claimed it for herself.

For this, they loved her. For this, they served.


End file.
